Intercooler 16 year service

[Pantelis Giamarellos]

Fellow listers Hi,

One of the things that we use here in Greece in order to clean the guts of
intercoolers is either household gazoline or ordinary gazoline (the one you
put in your car's fuel tank)

WARNING.
you have to be extra careful with gazoline, use it in an open space, not
breath its fume, keep it away from heat generating sources and/or open fire
and all the other things that you are supposed to be careful of when using
gazoline or highly flammable liquids.


A final rinsing with water is good.


Alternatively you can use petrol/diesel which also disolves the sludge
inside the intercooler but it does so more slowly.
Diesel is better for diesel powered cars.

Another proposal is to use a special intercooler cleaning solution. This is
readily available as a spare part from most automakers selling turbocharged
and intercooled vehicles. One who surely does so is Land Rover but I am
afraid you will not find it in the USA since LR of North America has never
imported a turbocharged and intercooled Land Rover model in your side of the
Atlantic.

But be sure that either gazoline or diesel works OK. Having three
intercooled cars, two of the with intercoolers as large as small tables,
asks for regular cleaning.

Take care
Pantelis

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Dikeman" <brett at cloud9.net>
To: "Doyt W. Echelberger" <Doyt at buckeye-express.com>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: Intercooler 16 year service


> At 12:13 AM -0400 7/1/03, Doyt W. Echelberger wrote:
>
> >The cleaning probably opened up an additional 20% of the cooling
channels.
> >I was surprised at how many channels were partially blocked. I did a test
> >drive after the cleaning, and the car seemed to run better......it was
the
> >type of improvement you have all probably noticed on the first cool crisp
> >day of fall, after you have become accustomed to the performance of your
> >turbo during the summer months.
>
> Here's two more things to do:
>
> Remove the intercooler.
>
> Bang it on something like a plastic bucket until all the crap stops
> coming out(front-facing side down of course).  Then blast some water
> through the fins(again, from the back side).  A little cleaner won't
> hurt.
>
> Seal one end with a plastic baggie and rubber band; fill with some
> hot water and some dish soap or a degreaser safe for plastic and
> aluminum(no simple green, it reacts with aluminum!  No brake cleaner,
> not safe for plastics!  Etc.)  Seal the other end.  Shake, tip one
> end, then the other, etc.  You get the idea.  Repeat until the water
> comes out reasonably clean, rinse once or twice, shake out the water,
> reinstall, drive.
>
> I've found a fair amount of oil on all the Audi and Porsche
> intercoolers I've pulled out; it's worth the trouble to clean that
> up, and a great item for when you're doing a t-belt change.
>
> Oh, and if any of the paint comes off, touch it up lightly with some
> flat black paint; not only are you protecting the aluminum, but black
> colored items radiate more heat, a phenomenon called black body
> radiation.
>
> Brett
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
>